Final Mass at Mater Dei Institute of Education
The final Mass in the oratory at Mater Dei Institute of Education was celebrated by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on Wednesday 24th August 2016. It marked 50 years of dedicated service by the College to the Diocese of Dublin and to Catholic Education nationally, and the beginning of new things with the imminent incorporation of the Institute fully into Dublin City University.
At the celebration, Archbishop Martin, asked, ‘Is it the end of an era?’ a question he responded to immediately:
'My answer is yes, but not in the sense of a definitive end to the presence of Christian faith as a constitutive part of Irish society. It is the recognition of an already changing and changed era in Irish culture and of the wisdom of taking note of that change.
Recognising change does not mean that we take refuge and become entrenched in the past, but that we enter into a new era with a different, renewed and purpose-filled commitment.
For the first time [in Ireland] candidates who aspire to teach in the various traditions of denominational education will be trained together and alongside those who aspire to a more secular vision. This is a vision close to the current realities. This new vision will foster not division but a recognition of difference and a fostering of the ability to live with difference in a pluralistic, multi-faith and also more secular Irish society. The believer and the non-believer have equal citizenship in a pluralist society.'
The Archbishop sees this as an opportunity. It is time for new institutions which are able to respond suitably to new times, he argues, institutions that can speak to young people today:
Today in a society where institutions are built with “soft walls” rather than impenetrable bricks and mortar, we need to look to something more flexible, perhaps more like the virtual structures within which our young people grow and develop and challenge and perhaps also fail.'